


Anchor Me (To You)

by Stumbling-While-Balancing (Rellanka)



Series: Keith's Birthday Fic Celebration [13]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mental Instability, Recovery, Reference to Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-28
Updated: 2018-10-28
Packaged: 2019-08-08 18:27:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16434554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rellanka/pseuds/Stumbling-While-Balancing
Summary: Lotor needs an anchor, and Keith isn't going to force him to stay adrift.





	Anchor Me (To You)

“You shouldn’t trust him.” The voice was expected, as was the message it imparted. Keith didn’t bother turning around, though he knew that he was probably upsetting the speaker by refusing to face her. He felt badly about her being upset, because Allura was still a good friend. And this entire situation wasn’t fair, not really. Not to her, or to the team, or even to Lotor. But Allura had been making it very clear how little she cared about what was fair for Lotor, and it was just as clear that she was biased when it came to him. It wasn’t because she was a cruel person, because she wasn't; it was because of her genuine worry about being betrayed again. Allura had lost her entire people because her father trusted someone he shouldn’t have. After the reveal of what Lotor had done, she felt like she had failed to protect those that counted on her in a way far worse than her father had. She had greater warning about what those of Zarkon’s line were capable of; she kept telling herself should have **known** better.

Keith knew all of this because Allura had confessed it to him. He had held Allura and comforted his friend about her worries and her feelings of failure as best he could. He didn't blame her. He understood where she was coming from.

But he also knew these four things: That what they had done to Lotor, leaving him in the quintessence field to be tortured and go insane, was **wrong**. That Lotor was genuinely trying to help them take down the monstrous machines Haggar was constructing. That they needed the help desperately. That **Lotor** needed any help he could get. And that Keith was going to do whatever he could to help him, because he considered himself at least partially responsible for Lotor's current state. 

“I know, Allura. I know. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop helping him.” Keith finally reminded her, not even wanting to think of how angry Allura was growing at his long pause. She was usually a calm and fair person, but she lost a lot of her patience when it came to Lotor. Keith had been experiencing more of her temper by association, even if Allura always apologized afterward. 

Instead of anger, he heard a deep sigh and sensed movement. He was still as she walked around him and turned to face him. When he could see her face, he noticed that she didn’t look angry, as Keith had been expecting. Instead she looked a mix of frustrated, fond, and reminiscent. It was a confusing mix. 

“I know you won’t listen to me, Keith. You may act as if a fighter is all you are, but you also have one of the best hearts I’ve ever come across. It’s capable of such great kindness. You remind me of someone who was just as stubborn, and just as kind.” Allura drew him into a hug, and Keith was stiff for a moment before relaxing into and returning her embrace. “Please don’t let the same thing that happened to him happen to you.” She whispered in his ear, before pulling away and fleeing. Keith touched the shoulder that was wet with her tears and he took a moment to mourn for everything his friend had gone through, before continuing on his way. 

***

Keith stood in front of Lotor’s door, and frowned as he considered it. It was shaking, slightly, and paired with the light that flashed in occasional bursts through the crack of the door… That was very not good. The quintessence that still remained in Lotor was obviously acting up again, and things were always difficult when it did. He didn’t know who would be there to greet him once he opened that door; Lotor, or some fractured form of him.

He opened the door, anyway.

Sure enough, Lotor was sitting decadently on a chair in the room, almost royally. Quintessence flickered over his skin and especially so in his hand, where it visibly sparked and danced like a lighting storm in an invisible bottle. He was staring at his hand with wide, mad eyes and a just as wide, mad smile. 

“I could be a king, you know.” Lotor said in acknowledgement of his presence (or perhaps, just to himself), and his voice lofty and slightly shaky, “I- I can defeat you all and take this world, no, no, this **universe** for my own.” 

And the problem- the really concerning problem- was that Lotor possibly could. He had been in the quintessence field so long that his ship had apparently dissolved, somehow, or at least that’s what he said it did. Lotor, himself, had absorbed an impossible to determine amount of quintessence during his time there, it tearing him apart and remaking him over and over again. To the point that he had become a part of the quintessence, or it had become a part of him. It gave him power similar to a druids, only incredibly magnified. Lotor had faced one of Haggar’s machine’s in his bare skin; and he’d **won**.

“You probably could,” Keith said carefully, being completely honest about it, “But then who will help me teach Kosmo to fetch? Or help me come up with a training regimen that finally outdoes my mom’s no-win scenario’s? Or any of the other things you’ve been helping me with? I’d be pretty lonely.”

It hadn’t helped as much as Keith had hoped it would, as Lotor only turned his mad eyes in his direction, no sign of calm in them at all. “Don’t worry, beloved. Don’t worry at all. You will be my most precious treasure, the jewel that I will place above all others so that they can worship at your feet. You deserve for those worthles-“

Keith frowned at Lotor’s words, the quick, unstable beat they were said in. The, by now familiar, lecture of how little the people around him deserved his presence. “Lotor.” He interrupted firmly, approaching the man. Slowly, carefully telegraphing his movements in case this was one of the times Lotor didn’t want to be touched, Keith reached up to grasp Lotor’s shoulder. Lotor gasped, leaning into the touch as he always did, touch starved and longing for contact. And as it always did, it helped to bleed a little bit more sanity into Lotor’s eyes.

This was something that Keith had learned on accident after one of the ‘bad’ days, and also something that he had used to help the other man many times since. The team had come to the theory that it wasn’t only the touch, but also Keith’s quintessence being so close that helped. They had hypothesized that it helped steady the quintessence in Lotor, with the implication being that they didn’t know what it did to **Keith**. Their ending conclusion had been that he shouldn’t do it anymore. Keith had ignored them. 

Lotor finally pulled away, much calmer now. And much more embarrassed. Fixing his gaze on some corner in the room in that was near Keith while still somehow not looking at him at all, Lotor said stiffly, “I apologize. That was… unpleasant, I’m sure. If you feel uncomfortable and would like to leave now… please, do so.” 

Keith rolled his eyes, even as he sat in the chair across from Lotor. “I just got here, and you’re already trying to kick me out? Besides, you haven’t had an episode like that in a while. You’re getting better. That’s something to celebrate, not something to kick me out over. ” 

“Better?” Lotor demanded, slightly incredulous, slightly hysterical.

“Generally that’s what they call an improvement of a situation, yeah. Better.” Keith said firmly. 

Lotor snorted, half amused to himself, “…Perhaps. You are correct that I’ve not lost myself in such a way in quite some time.” He admitted, before continuing, “But I didn’t improve on my own. I owe you more than I could ever repay.” 

Keith shook his head in denial, “You don’t owe me anything.”

Lotor merely smiled at him, something fathomless in his eyes, “You would say that, wouldn’t you?”

When Keith just stared back at him, unsure of how to reply, Lotor continued, “One day, beloved, I will make you feel as treasured as you deserve to be.” Lotor’s voice was soft, and almost gentle. The madness was almost gone from his eyes, replaced by earnestness and steady determination. He looked like a man who meant what he said. He looked like a man in love. 

And looking back at him, Keith thought, if only to himself: that while he didn’t want an endless supply of worshipful followers like Lotor kept insisting he deserved… maybe if it was only Lotor worshiping him, he wouldn’t mind. Not at all.

**Author's Note:**

> So, a lot of thoughts with this fic, but not so much time to type them out so a basic summary of events: 
> 
> The team got Lotor from the quintessence field to find him changed. 
> 
> Like his father and his mother, Lotor was changed and made more powerful by the quintessence, only to an even greater degree due to the greater length of exposure time.
> 
> Allura is awesome, and has good reason to be suspicious of Lotor. I love that girl.
> 
> Yes, Keith’s been trying to help Lotor regain his sanity after what he went through. And yes, Keith was using his wolf as a therapy dog and trying to engage Lotor’s mind in strategy techniques to bring back his sense of self. Keith’s a good boy that tries his best to help the people around him. *hugs tightly*
> 
> Lol, a handsome boy rescues him from an abyss and then makes it his mission to help him recover from the ordeal. Yeah, Lotor fell in love. (Keith has been falling in love more slowly, but he’s almost there.)


End file.
